Speeding fines could be cancelled

NINETEEN thousand speeding fines pending payment in Malaga province could be cancelled following various court decisions to this effect due to an error on the part of the DGT traffic authority.

While those who have already paid up voluntarily are out of luck as they will not be able to get their cash back, the estimated 19,000 who have yet to pay may be able to appeal against fines issued. The speeding incidents in question are those captured by radars between 2010 and 2015, during which period the DGT failed to apply correction levels required by the European Union.

These requirements state that drivers must be informed of the speed at which the image was captured, the limit on the road and the corrected speed, explained Associated European Automobile group president Mario Arnaldo.

“We’ve already won more than 100 cases and judges are starting to cancel fines,” Arnaldo explained, arguing that every country in the EU except Spain has been meeting the requirements.

The difference between corrected and uncorrected speed levels can be considerable as, for example, a driver caught at 151 kmph on a motorway faces a €300 fine and loss of two licence points before speed correction instead of a €100 fine after correction.

Corrections are necessary due to the margin of error which radars carry. The DGT itself has stated that these can vary between 3 and 7 per cent depending on the equipment. As of 2015 this led to general application of a 7 per cent correction.